Playtest Campaign
World Building Here's a synopsis of the world building discussion for the playtest campaign. Setting: 3 generations (about 100 years) post-crash post-apocalyptic setting. The player characters begin the campaign in a community that has developed into a relatively stable place. It is a 'pocket of hope' as a community that has survived in a relatively democratic, looking out for each other, we're safer together sort of way. The PCs may not have been brought up in this community, but they've ended up there, or are seeking to join. Here are my notes about what things are like. All of this is subject to flavor and factual changes as our story evolves. The Fall There was a slow decline followed by an abrupt crash. The community and political world climate began to grow darker, less democratic, and more prone to violent clashes. State-sponsored sabotage and violence were endemic in little ways - computer viruses, intentional flaws in exported goods, interference with the internal politics of rival nations, dissident groups across the globe found financial and more direct support from enemies of their states. Climate change led to more frequent and more severe weather events all over the globe. Infrastructure and public safety began to fail under the pressure of dams breaching, massive wildfires, floods, mudslides, and rising seas. The failures of infrastructure lead to more and more unrest. Areas around toxic industrial production plants became massive dead zones as they were hit by disaster and failure of environmental systems. Civil war breaks out in historically peaceful places around the world. Those who can afford it begin to protect themselves with private resources. They have their gated communities - now with increased defensive architecture and a greater reliance on private security forces. Technology becomes a threat. Artificial Intelligences are born. They collect immense amounts of data, they analyze, they detect patterns, and they work to affect those patterns. Some of them are woven into security systems. The crash: Legend says that the AIs started to attack each other. No one really knows how it started, but there was a short, intense and catastrophic world war three. AI fueled defensive forces, including mobile units, continue to patrol and try to protect their fiefdoms. The humans call them killbots. With the breakdown of infrastructure and civil society, brutality, disease, and disaster make the world a very dangerous place. Between the death and destruction in the world during the decline, the massive casualties during WWIII, and the ensuing brutal struggle for survival, world population is drastically lowered. The Team The players are looking for something kinda sci-fi, kinda survival, and all heroic. There aren't any nanite machines, no cybergenics, no magic or psionic powers. They want big enemies - kill bots, machines, AI - but they don't want to have special powers themselves. They want to achieve extraordinary success, but not with extraordinary abilities. They want a heroic character growth arc (more like DnD than CoC). The World In many ways, the world has regressed into small defensive communities. There is some self-organizing going on now, the immediate necessities of survival were either figured out, or the community in question perished. Now, it's three generations in, and there is safety in numbers. Alliances are being created. It may be that this will make the world safer... or, you know... maybe not. Brutality is rampant - survival of the strongest and/or the ones with the biggest guns has been a great strategy for nearly 100 years. (The players will have to deal with the realities of a brutal world, but we're going to bypass most direct experience of it... because we're trying to be a heroic story here, not a tragedy.) We've got some ideas of the states of some of the technology and infrastructure of the world. This is also subject to change as the story develops, but there was a strong feeling in the group that they wanted a good shared understanding of what was possible and what the world is like. Technology There are rumors that old world technology still exists in the enclaves of the elites... but none of the players have ever seen it. In fact, they've never even seen an enclave - so they might be rumors too. Computing: Anything with a chip is highly suspect. The AIs are rumored to have infected everything with various types of viruses. Practically - the world is back to pre-PC levels of technology. Machines are fine - if you've got power, but computers are definitely not. In fact, most things you find that had any sort of computer power at all are completely fried. The presence of an actually powered up screen is so rare that most people have never seen one - and almost everyone would be terrified if they did. Communications: Radios are possible, but anything that sends out a signal may attract a killbot. Receiving signals is seen as less of a risk, and some communities do have radio receivers. Who knows who's really producing the programs though. HAM radio might be a bit safer - those signals bounce all over the world - maybe they're harder to track down. Electricity: It's feasible to have small electric generators, batteries, and even a very small grid for a lucky town or neighborhood. Weaponry: Here's the lowdown. Nobody is making new guns, and nobody is making new casings - there just isn't the infrastructure to get this done. You need special metals and industrial processes to make both, and society doesn't have that anymore. That said, you can make new ammunition. There are two kinds of ammunition blackpowder and jacketed bullets. Blackpowder: The old black powder kind still works just about as well as it ever did. That is - well enough to kill things, well enough to be worth the trouble and expense, and a black powder gun is still a great tool to bring to a knife fight. You can also cast new bullets for black powder guns (no casing or primer needed), and these guns will work for a long, long time. Reloaded: The second kind of ammunition is reliant on old world supplies. Check out the top rated response to this post on stack exchange. You can 'reload' new bullets and even primers for modern guns. You do need old-world brass cases though. Fortunately (or not), there's so much ammunition in the world, that you can still find old-world bullets, and brass cases are readily available. The problem, however, is that the powder you get now is not even close to what these guns were made for, so these guns get dirty - quickly. The older the design, the better they work. Revolvers are totally back in. Anything with a magazine still works, but isn't as reliable and needs a lot of maintenance. Automatic weapons work if you've got old world bullets - the new powder just fouls them up, and makes them extremely unreliable. Blades: So, while guns are common, so are blades - much less maintenance and new ones are still being made. Plus, they look cool. Bows: Bows exist, but Gill's character will make fun of them... just so you know. Explosives: I have a policy - whenever a player asks if there's dynamite, I try really hard to say yes. So, yes, dynamite is around. More powerful and/or advanced explosives are around but extremely rare. Transportation: The biggest problem with transportation isn't the technology, it's the roads. Following a predictable path is dangerous in most places. That said, as local transportation in relatively well-known terrain between friendly communities, old cars and trucks still work (low tech, no computer versions). If you can defend yourself against ambush and 'toll' takers, then they work for longer distances. A good 4x4 is a serious resource. A dirt bike might get you places, but it won't do it quietly. Bicycles - especially mountain bikes - are great choices for long distances. Also, horses are back. In coastal areas and river areas, boats are a good choice (although vulnerable to ambush on the water - but less of a problem there than on roads). Air travel? Maybe - but you're more likely to think anything flying is a killbot than transportation. We also like trains, UFOs, and Space Stations. Community Factions: There are probably multiple AIs in the world, doing whatever they think is right. Most communities have a few families to a few hundred people in them. Larger communities may have up to 1000, but that is rare. Many communities are run by war-lords: some benevolently, most not. There are some areas where there are networks of communities just forming. This is new. There are some communities that are based on religion; are they cults? It probably depends on your perspective. A few organized religions still exist and may have larger networks: Amish / Mormon / Catholic. Some communities of scavengers have sprung up on the outskirts of cities. What is scarce: physical safety, surplus food, food may be scarce in pockets due to raids, crop failures, and seasonality, medicine and medical knowledge are scarce, good clear glass. What is abundant: misfortune, real estate, metal, building materials, fish and game. Drugs: alcohol is very common, marijuana is common, other drugs are scarce and valuable. Entertainment: Music and singing, storytelling, records.